I used a similar Dell rubberdome chiclet keyboard for years which frankly was a fine daily driver; it’s quiet, durable (ok maybe not takes-30-years-of-abuse-like-a-model-m durable, but spill resistant with solid legends), tactile, low profile. and cheap as chips. All in all it’s the kind of keyboard you can buy and handle with no care in a shared office space and get your work done day after day. It won’t fail you and it won’t get stolen, and it won’t make you cry if someone drops a can of coke on it.

Overall it just feels like a $20 rubber dome keyboard. My only real point against him is that the board in my view doesn't really need to be singled out. There are other equally as okay rubber domes. Almost none of these points are unique to this board.

Pros
It is definitely good value for ~$20 CAD
It does feel reasonably sturdy while thin
Decent key travel for what it is
Decent key height for what it is
Legends are pretty bright
Light
Wired

Cons
You can't type easily on it without looking at it.
IBM PC jr keyboard reborn chicklet islands basically requiring more looking at the keyboard
bottom row keys do that weird dell thing where they are taller
no space between function row

Thoughts on author claims:
The claim about putting lock lights on the individual keys is okay.. The author says keyboards with lock light indicators suffer from poor ui or bad tech choices. The writer immediately after this says they moved caps lock key away to a better position then. Perhaps if this keyboard made better ui or tech choices the caps lock wouldn't be there.

"You want related things to be together" is what he says, but then immediately says the lights should be dispersed on each lock key. Weird reasoning. because if he had a bank of lock lights, then his esc key being caps lock would work even better. Not sure if you remap caps to esc, if the original caps key lights up. OKAY.

Locklights are not that hard to figure out. I am not sure that anyone types in caps for more than 3 seconds, checks the caplock light and goes "if only I looked at the capslock key for the light I could have saved time. My hand usually covers caps personally.

Size is pretty good. Enjoy that they kept some key height on such a thin keyboard. it does feel compact despite being full size

Extra media keys are nice I guess, but 6 of them are just F-row keys with an FN layer anyway. and the other 3 like windows, page/context and FN are pretty standard, so its actually just the 4 above Numpad that are new.

The 6 key roll over is fine.

The usb cord is average but not too flimsy.

Rubber feet are fine and do what they should

The point about cleaning it is important because it is super glossy so gets smudgy immediately like a matias

It is about as quiet as any laptop keyboard.

The author should just buy a TypeHeaven when they collect enough affiliate link money if they want to treat themself

He states that he bought another one after 5 years because a key on the first one died. That's already poor value given that you can find mechanical keyboards for under $40. I've never had a keyboard or key die on me in a 5 year span, including cheapo keyboards.

Likely the only reason he's aware of that model is because it's an Amazon Basics-branded keyboard. House brands are an easy choice and can be decent, but it's also a lazy choice for a reviewer to make, as there are dozens (hundreds?) of alternatives in that price range.

Also, I don't buy the argument that membrane keyboards are quieter - or at least they aren't necessarily quieter. I have coworkers who type louder than I do (even with me on a clicky keyboard, nevermind Topre) because they are button mashing (presumably to bottom out the keys for them to register properly). Sure, the quietest rubber dome keyboards will be quieter than quiet tactiles, but they usually sacrifice feel.

I won't fault anyone for just buying an inexpensive Amazon keyboard, but for me it's a false economy except as a throwaway item for a spare computer (and even then I use other brands like Verbatim, even cheaper at $9.74 after applying coupon during checkout and comes with a mouse). Amazon isn't the worst company in the world (either from ethical or service standpoint), but I still don't particularly like them for a myriad of reasons, and will always seek out and choose an equal or better alternative whenever possible.

Last edited by CountNoctua on 04 Sep 2019, 22:55, edited 4 times in total.

An Amazon Basics keyboard. No programmability. No customization. Barely the minimum-est of minimum extras. With low profile buttons that are practically flat (I had to zoom in on Amazon's picture to see the curve of the buttons, and I'm still not sure it's not just an artifact of the picture).

A generic rubber dome keyboard, praised by someone who is expected to want more, much more, of a keyboard. That's why this is shocking. It'd be different if this were a blog post by, say, my grandmother (my paternal grandmother — my maternal grandmother would be whining about young whippersnapers actually liking the F row above the alpha block instead of to its leftside, as God intended!).

The claim about putting lock lights on the individual keys is okay.. The author says keyboards with lock light indicators suffer from poor ui or bad tech choices.

I can't disagree with that. LED panels should go away.

They work only when (and if) your eyes notice them going on or off as you press the locking key.
Otherwise, they require mental effort to read. If they are not text, they are too often cryptic symbols that are completely different from the ones printed on the keys: some are ISO (that you can find only on LED panels and nowhere else) but some are brand-specific even.
And you can't always rely on the order: the panel could be left-aligned or right-aligned above the numpad; on some keyboards the rightmost LED is not Num Lock but "Power"; and on Sun keyboards, Num Lock is on the left. Others have the LEDs on the vertical ...

I suspect his reaction will be rather "meh" compared to some of his more, ahem, "colorful" ones.
Going by that blog post, there doesn't seem to be anything especially offensive with this keyboard when compared to the like of the Smith-Corona or that peanut-butter-proof board.

It's interesting, lots of people have asked me to review this keyboard. I don't suppose I'd like this as much as he seems to, but it's clear he's given it some thought. Very interesting to see someone else's perspective on these things xD .

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